The present invention relates to projectile-firing weapons and, more particularly, to a novel mechanism for accelerating a gun bolt toward and away from the firing chamber formed in a gun barrel, to respectively load and remove a cartridge into and from the chamber.
Modern weaponry often requires a fully automatic cartridge-firing gun in which apparent recoil force is minimized, even when a high rate-of-fire is provided. Such a weapon might beneficially use out-of-battery loading; however, with the attendant reciprocating barrel assembly movement, a special accelerator mechanism must provide the necessary forward acceleration (ramming) of the cartridge axially into the firing chamber, prior to firing, and rearward acceleration for the extraction of the spent cartridge. It is highly desirable to provide an accelerator mechanism that minimizes non-axial dimensions and movements, as well as one which provides axial movement over distances greater than the distance through which an initiating input must move. Most versatile operation dictates that the desired out-of-battery operation be provided with ambidextrous feed, i.e. with the weapon accepting feeding through either side of the receiver of a sequence of ammunition cartridges which are linked together in a belted configuration, and operating with the reciprocating barrel assembly.